I look into synaptic package manager? find if any nvidia-* are installed, and if I find some, what should I do then?

you remove them including config files ("complete removal").

Quote:

Originally Posted by vblanche

Also, what would be the best method to install 180.18 or 180.11?

what about Envy?

I have never used envy, just installed the drivers by hand, and works. I don't know if envy has support for beta drivers.
Installing by hand should be safe if you do not have any packages containing a conflicting version of the nvidia driver installed.
You only have to reinstall every time you have updated your kernel.

In Synaptic for every installed package there should be the options "Mark for Removal" (which leaves config files and init scripts) and "Mark for Complete Removal" (which also removes config files and init scripts), just select the second for every package.
If Synaptic automatically selects other packages to be removed (because of dependencies), you should nevertheless mark these additional packages for "Complete Removal" by hand (by default they are only marked for "Removal" and not for "Complete Removal").

In general, all important system wide config files are located somewhere in /etc. If you chose "Complete Removal" Synaptic takes care of them. The only config file that is of special interest here is /etc/X11/xorg.conf . You should perhaps keep a backup of it somewhere.

After uninstalling nvidia driver, log out (no shut down or reboot, just end your session), change to a virtual terminal (ctrl+alt+F1...ctrl+alt+F6, the X-Server can normally be found on ctrl+alt+F7 or ..+F8) log in, become root ("sudo su -", now you do not have to use sudo for every command). Use

Code:

/etc/init.d/gdm stop

to stop your X-Server

then cd to the directory containing the driver installer, and run it. If it asks if it should update your xorg.conf select yes if you install the driver for the first time and no for every subsequent time.